1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tools for use in slaughter houses and, more particularly, to carcass sectioning saws.
2. Prior Art
In the past band saws have been used in sectioning animal carcasses in slaughter houses. Such band saws have suffered from the problem of bone dust and other debris from one carcass being passed on to another carcass. If one of the carcasses is diseased or has deteriorated, successive carcasses may be contaminated and made worthless by such contamination. Such waste material, in the past, has tended to accumulate in the crevices within the saw and no orderly means for preventing such accumulation or removing the bone dust or other waste before it accumulates has been provided. Loss of carcasses arising from contamination can no longer be tolerated in the light of the depressed nature of cattle and meat prices.
A further problem is that if the band saw blade which is used in such carcass saws becomes pinched or jammed in a bone or other portion of the carcass being sawed as a result of miscutting, its removal from the cut by the conventional methods, which are to use the saw handle as a pressure point and to attempt to dislodge the blade from the bone by pivoting the entire saw about the location of the jam or to pull up on the saw, result in the saw-blade's being pulled out of its guides.
Those guides maintain the blade, which is a band, in a position at right angles to its normal orientation as it passes over the drive wheels in the saw. Thus, if the band is pulled out of those guides in the process of trying to pry it loose from a cut, it snaps 90.degree. into a position conforming to that in which it is found as it passes over the wheels which drive it. Re-orienting the band and loading it into its guide slots is time-consuming and a nuisance.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to overcome various disadvantages set forth hereinbefore.
It is a further object of this invention to provide means for permitting the easy release of a carcass saw blade from a pinched or jammed condition during cutting.